Saturday, July 25, 2009

Shyness


For the first time Hannah was shy. We were in Barnes & Noble and there were a couple kids playing with the Thomas the Tank Engine train set. Usually when she is there, she pretty much has the entire children's department to herself. Tonight she saw the other kids playing and immediately tried to hide behind me. I have never seen her shy before, so it took me a bit to realize that she was having a hard time and didn't know what to do. We went over to an empty corner of the kid's department and practiced what to say. I thought she might want to say, "Hi, my name is Hannah, can I play too?" Hannah thought this was pretty good, so armed with her new phrase, she hedged over to the train set again. Slowly, she got closer and closer and finally very quietly said, "Hi, I'm Hannah, what's your name?" When the kids didn't answer she looked nervously at me for help. I suggested she speak a little louder and try again. This time she got a response, the kids scootched over and let Hannah in.
Being a super shy child, I was quite proud of my brave little girl trying hard to navigate her way through the difficulties of social interaction.

2 comments:

candy said...

It's never too early to learn social skills. Way to go Hannah!

Toothy said...

Before my parents divorce I was sooooo shy, I wouldn't even say here when the teacher called my name, I just raised my hand. For some reason all the anger, dissapointment, heartache and being caught in the middle of the war between my parents made me the outspoken person I am now.